All we need is the air that we
breathe....
But sometimes that's not
enough......Kindly written by
Karry Gardner

I've been prompted to write
this article about breathing problems
because there have been a number of
questions recently regarding COPD (Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) , coughing
and SAD (small airway disease) and as I have
a horse with asthma/hayfever symptoms, I
have a fair bit of experience with this
type of problem that I feel it's time I
shared with everyone.

Madame Ginger Bits
(Hayley) is a 15.3 hand Anglo Arab who
is teaching me to ride (along with lots
of help from my instructors) . She is 23
years young and usually very fit. Until
18 months ago, her breathing was never
an issue.

I went away on holiday
for 5 weeks at the beginning of January
2001 and when I came back, I noticed
that she was coughing a lot - great big
hacking coughs that would shake her body
and make her sides heave with effort . I
felt mean just riding her. She made a
gurgling noise in her throat and left
her feed most mornings.

I got the vet out to see
her and he examined her mouth and told
me that I should really have a split
back tooth removed as it was digging
into her tongue and causing her distress
and stopping her from accepting the bit.
He didn't at that time feel that there
was any cause for concern with her
breathing and even put her under a
general anaesthetic to remove the
tooth. She still coughed. The vet said
that slow cantering would help clear the
airways as the rocking motion would
loosen the phlegm in the airways and
make it easier to cough up. However,
slow cantering a horse having difficulty
just breathing felt cruel - there had
to another and better way.

Horses are not very good
at clearing their airways if they become
congested and so coughing is like
physiotherapy to a horse - it's the only
means he has of clearing all the gunk
out of his upper respiratory tract so
coughing in itself is good - it means
the horses immune system and response to
debris in the tract is working.

When that cough starts to
affect the horse's way of going and the
horse's sides are heaving with exertion
and effort, it's time to have a
re-think.

I started by buying
Ventipulmin granules to put in my
horse's feed which was a complete waste
of time and money - the drugs go into
the horse's stomach NOT into the
respiratory tract so giving medication
of this type orally is a waste of time
in my opinion. I also bought a herbal
remedy (there are many on the market)
which, again was useless even after
several weeks of feeding it to her.

You've Done Your Best - Now CALL THE VET!!

Time to get the vet
involved and so I called him out to
examine her properly.

First of all, my vet
found "whistling" in one bronchial tract
which meant she was having difficulty
breathing and that explained the
"heaves". He suggested two things. The
first was that she had a shot of
cortisone which suppresses the immune
system and stops the horse from having
the allergic reaction to whatever it
was that was causing the allergy. Now,
cortisone is not without it's problems
and shouldn't be given to overweight
horses or ponies by injection. The
reason for this is that it can trigger
an attack of laminitis so it's not the
answer in all cases. However, my mare
was not overweight and it was worth the
risk. There are two doses that can be
given. The first has a shorter effect
than the second but is less likely to
cause laminitis so we opted for the
short dose. MGB was terrified (she hates
needles) and wouldn't relax her neck so
it took some doing on the vet's part.

MGB reacted badly to the
cortisone - she sweated up in minutes
and had to be turned out to cool off
quickly. This can be a totally normal
response even in humans although not all
humans or horses experience this. The
horse isn't dying , just get it cool as
quickly as possible. I went up again
later in the evening and she was fine.

The vet suggested that we
move her to a different box. Her old
home ( for 19 years) was in a "box of
four" where the boxes looked at each
other rather than the more usual
arrangement of a line of loose boxes. We
moved her into the "line" into a larger
box , across from her old box , with
more air flow (a great big hole in the
ceiling) and also this box was sealed
off physically from the box next door.
This also meant that the pollen
generated by the trees could flow over
her box rather than into it .

He also wanted her on
shavings but I thought that if I did too
many things at once then I wouldn't have
a clue which of them had worked so she
stayed on straw.

MGB moved house the next
day and seemed happy in her new upgraded
bedroom.

I talked at length to my
husband, a life long asthmatic who has a
vast knowledge of the kinds of drugs
available and the effects that these
drugs have on the body - he also told me
that the very last thing he wanted to do
when his breathing is compromised is any
kind of physical exercise so I stopped
riding immediately. I also talked to my
vet again who was going to a trade show
in Scotland and he offered to track me
down an equine "spacer" which is a
similar device to the one used by human
asthmatics to take their sprays. The
difference is that humans take their
medication through their mouths and
horses take it through their nostrils.

Now just a word about
sprays here.

Sprays administer
cortisone and bronchio-dilators using
actuated particles which are the most
effective way of getting the drug into
the horses bronchial passages where it
can have an effect. Even using a
nebuliser either electric or a foot
pumped one does not get the particles
fine enough to line the tubes properly
and so the effect is reduced.

On average, a horse of
around 15.2 requires 10 times the daily
dose that a human requires as a
maintenance dosage.

The only way of giving
these sprays is to use a proper equine
"spacer" with a one way valve system
which is clamped over one nostril whilst
the other nostril is closed using your
hand. The spray is then inserted into
the end of the spacer and depressed into
it . The horse breathes in, taking the
drugs through the spacer and the one way
valve through the nostril and up into
the nasal passages and finally into the
bronchial passages and lungs. The fine
particles line the tubes and lungs where
they can begin their job.

The first spray is a
corticosteriod and the brand name is
"Becloforte" or "Becotide" . The spray
is usually in a brown "puffer".

This spray suppresses the
immune system to allow the other drugs
to work. It can be reduced after a
period of ten days , halving the dose
each day after the tenth day until the
horse cortisone free. The good news
about this way of administration is that
it has not been known to cause laminitis
like injected or oral steroids so it's
safer . I used 20 puffs daily (10 twice
a day)

The second spray is a
fast acting bronchio dilator , brand
name "Ventolin" or "Salbutamol" and is
blue in colour. This immediately opens
up the airways and makes breathing
easier and the horse more comfortable.
This is used in a consistent amount and
I used 20 puffs daily (10 twice a day)

The final spray is a long
acting bronchio dilator brand name "
Serevent" in a green puffer and this is
the one my husband says he could not
live without. Serevent keeps the airways
open for twelve hours at a time . Again,
the dosage is the same.

And so MGB lived on this
regime all last summer with no breathing
problems until the coughing began again
in November of 2001. The vet duly came
and gave her another cortisone injection
and shook his head sadly saying he
thought we had really cracked it. I
still believed there must be a rational
explanation for her relapse and so we
made sure that her hay was thoroughly
soaked before feeding it to her. She
stayed "cough free" on wet hay and her
drugs until Christmas when it was cold
and someone gave her dry hay instead and
the coughing began again.

We took her off hay
totally and gave her haylage which at
another £20 a week isn't cheap but she
coughs only if someone accidentally
mixes hay in with her bedding and she
then tries to eat it. She is also off
all medication and I would only use it
now if she began to relapse but I
believe that we have found the source of
her allergy -HAY !!

A lot of horses on our
yard are coughing now and I think it's
because we are now feeding last years
hay and it's dusty. It might be OK for
younger horses with stronger immune
systems but my horse needs a bit more
coddling at her age .

In the past, vets
labelled this condition COPD (Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) but I
thinks it's a misnomer.

Almost all the humans
who are diagnosed with COPD are smokers
- horses don't smoke and so I believe
it's an allergy to hay spores, nothing
more than that. It gets worse in winter
when hay cannot be soaked because it's
too cold and the hay freezes and also
because the hay is old and dusty. It
gets better for some horses if they are
turned out because they are away from
the source of the problem - ie .HAY.

Questions
& Answers

Q. So why should it be that we have fed
horses hay for years to no ill effects ?

A. Well, I would
challenge that statement because how
many horses in years gone by were
diagnosed as being "broken winded" and
destroyed, possibly as a result of an
allergy to hay ? This allergy has been
around for years, we were too blind to
see it. Hay is not a natural first
choice food for horses - grass is the
food that a horse would eat in the wild,
hay is man-made.

Q. Do why do some horses and ponies get
worse when they are turned out ?

A. Possibly because like
humans, horses have different allergies
and some may be allergic or sensitive
to grass pollen or tree pollen and so
turning them out makes it worse. Also,
think of the increase in chemical
spraying these days - how can anyone
know what has accidentally got into
their field, borne on the wind or into
their hay when it was made ?

Q. Will my horse get better - the
condition is now pretty advanced ?

A. Only you can decide
how far down he road you want to go with
your horse or pony. It's a long task and
you have to be prepared not to ride when
the horse is bad and to access the
situation on an ongoing basis and to
spend money on drugs that work - that's
not cheap. I personally can't put a
price on the way I feel about my horse.
If the horse gets bad because the
condition is untreated for years, it
may not be possible to reverse the
situation and euthanasia may be kinder
than a suffering horse.

Q. Can I prevent this happening?

A. You can take sensible
steps to safeguard your horse. Flu
injections for younger horses, I think,
must be routine. A Flu epidemic can
lower your horse's immunity and cause
long term breathing problems ,leaving
the horse vulnerable to allergies.

You can make sure that
you always feed good quality, wet hay.
If the quality gets poor or the hay gets
old or it's too cold to wet it, feed
haylage instead.

You can put your horse
onto wood shavings so he can't eat the
bed and inhale straw spores but I don't
think that straw is the culprit here.
It's harder and less dusty so less
likely to go mouldy and harbour spores.

You can take on board
that older horses have weaker immune
systems so as your horse gets older be
aware that his dietary need will alter
and his ability to shake off minor
coughs lessens and his lung function
isn't as strong so your horse needs food
appropriate to his age along with all
other considerations.

Q. Are there any homeopathic
alternatives to the use of the drugs ?

One suggestion that I was
unable to try was feeding locally
gathered honey (within a 3 mile radius
of where your horse is kept). Honey is a
naturally occurring anti-biotic and
contains histamine. Histamine can cause
allergies in people and animals and so
feeding a little back strengthens the
immune response and the horse can fight
the reaction using his own immune
system.

I had no success with
other proprietary "herbal mixes" and it
would have taken months to build up the
levels in the horse to have any
noticeable effect and I didn't have
months - I had a sick horse !!

There may be some mileage
in contacting a homeopathic vet - one
who trained in conventional medicine as
well as homeopathy as some horses have
benefited from being given naturally
occurring anti-histamines to build the
immune response and have been "cured"
of their hay allergy. I don't know the
specific homeopathic remedies but there
are vets out their who swear by this
approach.

(I hate the word cured -
only bacon is cured in my opinion !!)

I am not an expert, I am
not a vet and so any of the information
contained in this article is a statement
based directly upon my own experiences.

If I can be of help to
anyone on this subject , please
email me
, I am happy to discuss
even if I cannot promise a cure - but
please be prepared - I can be quite
blunt if I think that you should have
called the vet out ages ago and your
horse is suffering as a result.

Horses are not cheap to
keep and only a vet can prescribe any of
the drugs I mention here for your horse
and that may involve expense.